Panthers management has been so enthralled with what they’ve seen from Jagr on and off the ice that it’s all but guaranteed they will approach his camp after the season to see if he wants to stay on. The pending UFA winger wouldn’t tip his hand Thursday, but he did mention that when he’s happy somewhere, he doesn’t look to leave.

At the end of the day, there’s a financial negotiation that needs to take place and that numbers have to work for each side. One thing’s for sure, though. Jagr sees a team that’s going to contend in years to come.

“To be honest with you guys, and maybe this will surprise a lot of people, but the talent we’ve got here, it’s a very, very talented team,” said Jagr, his new team clearly a revelation to him once he got there.

Jagr, 43, is on a one-year deal with a $3.5M cap hit and has been pretty strong in March, scoring two goals and eight points in 10 games as Florida continues to push for the playoffs — so it’s no real surprise the Panthers want to keep him around. The organization also appears keen on furthering the mentor-student dynamic, currently at play between 37-year-old Willie Mitchell and 19-year-old rookie Aaron Ekblad; Ekblad is currently living with Mitchell and his wife, a relationship that was recently covered by Grantland’s Katie Baker (which is definitely worth a read.)

Over the last few games, Jagr has played on the “kid line” with 21-year-old Jonathan Huberdeau and 19-year-old Aleksander Barkov.

“I know how important it is to give them advice,” Jagr told ESPN. “I know they’re going to find out on their own, but maybe a little bit later. If I give them something and they take the advice, it’s going to be good for them. Like I did.

“When I was younger, I had so many great players around me who tried to help me all the time. It helped my hockey career.’’

The NHL’s two worst teams — standings-wise, anyway — will do battle tonight when the Sabres host the Coyotes in Buffalo, and Buffalo will start little-used Matthew Hackett in net ahead of Anders Lindback, who’s been quite solid of late.

Hackett, 25, is 0-3-0 this year with a .893 save percentage and 4.34 GAA. He’s spent the majority of the season AHL Rochester, but was summoned to the Sabres after Chad Johnson went down to injury almost immediately after being acquired via trade.

In hist last outing, a 3-0 loss to Nashville, Hackett allowed three goals on 43 shots, good for a .930 save percentage.

For the Coyotes, Mike Smith will get the start in goal. Smith’s turnaround after a dreadful start has been one of the few bright spots in Arizona this season, and is worth mentioning — the veteran has been very good in nine games this month, allowing just 21 goals on 326 shots for a .936 save percentage.

Tonight on NBCSN, it’s the Philadelphia Flyers hosting the Chicago Blackhawks at 8 p.m. ET. Following are some game notes, as compiled by the NHL on NBC research team:

TOP STORYLINES

• 2010 Stanley Cup Final matchup: The Blackhawks and Flyers were opponents in the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, won in 6 games by Chicago. Patrick Kane scored in overtime of Game 6 to clinch the Cup for the Hawks.

• The Blackhawks have 9 players from the Cup-winning team still on their roster today (though Kris Versteeg has played on 3 different teams, including the Flyers during part of the 2010-11 season, since the 2010 Final before his return to Chicago via trade last season).

• The Flyers, on the other hand, have just Claude Giroux remaining from that season’s Cup Final appearance (Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen were on PHI in 2010 but were just traded at the deadline).

• Chicago climbing in March: The Hawks are 7-1-1 in March, and while still 3rd in the Central Division, this stretch has now given them a legitimate chance to earn at least home ice in the First Round, if not win the Central entirely.

• The Hawks also have 2 games in hand on both Nashville and St. Louis, as well as two more matchups with the Blues (none vs. the Predators).

• Philly going the other way in March: On March 7, the Flyers played a pivotal game in Boston. Entering the game, the Flyers trailed the Bruins by 4 points for the final playoff spot. Philly was 15 seconds away from a regulation win (and pulling to within 2 pts of the B’s), but Boston scored the tying goal in the dying seconds before netting the OT winner to widen the gap in the standings.

• Less than 3 weeks later, the Flyers are on the verge of mathematical elimination.

• Dating back to the BOS loss, PHI has won just once in its last 9 games (1-4-4 record). The Flyers trail the final playoff spot by 11 points with just 8 games left.

• The Flyers enter tonight after getting swept (0-2-2 record) on a 4-game road trip through Canada. They have now lost 9 straight on the road. Philly has also lost 9 straight road games on two separate occasions this season – the first time that has happened in franchise history.

• Following the EDM loss, Flyers players addressed the outlook for the rest of the season:

“We have to pick it up. We have pride as a group, and even though the playoffs probably aren’t in the picture, we want to finish strong.” – Ray Emery

“Guys are playing for jobs next year, and motivation shouldn’t be an issue at all.” – Brayden Schenn CHI Team/Player Notes

• Thriving without Kane: After the win vs. Carolina, Chicago has now gone 8-2-1 without its leading scorer. Kane underwent successful surgery on Feb. 25 to repair his left clavicle fracture and was expected to be out 12 weeks from that time (exactly 4 weeks ago). That timetable likely puts Kane out until at least the WC Final. At the time of the injury, Kane was tied for the league lead in points with 64 in 61 games. His 27 goals were 3 shy of his career high of 30 set in 2009-10.

• Since Kane has been out, Chicago’s offense has dipped, but the Hawks’ defense has dramatically improved:

• Kane looked good on the ice last Friday, but the timetable on his return remains unchanged:

“He was skating before practice, so he was out on the ice, (and) he was actually flying out there…He’s progressing real well and he’s going to have a tough stretch of trying to keep him away from wanting to play a game right now.” – Coach Joel Quenneville, on Kane’s progress

“Yeah, nothing’s changed.” – Quenneville, on the status of his recovery

CHICAGO TEAM/PLAYER NOTES

• Jonathan Toews had an assist vs. CAR on Monday – the 500th point of his NHL career.

• In 9 games this March, Toews has 10 points (4G-6A).

• Toews is 4 points away from tying Kane for the team lead. Toews has only led the Hawks in scoring once in his career (2010-11 w/ 76 points at age 22).

• Patrick Sharp had 1 goal and 1 assist vs. CAR. Sharp had gone 19 straight games without a goal from Jan. 30 to March 12 (2nd-longest drought of career), but since scoring twice on March 14 at SJ, he now has 3 goals (and 3 assists) in his last 5 games.

• Sharp (13 goals this season) is still well below his team-leading performance of 34 goals a season ago.

• The Hawks team defense has been stellar of late. Corey Crawford stopped 43 shots against Carolina for his 30th win of the season – the 4th 30-win season of his career (all w/ CHI).

• He is just the 3rd goalie in franchise history to post 4 seasons of at least 30 wins in a Hawks uniform, joining Hall-of-Famers Tony Esposito (8 times) and Glenn Hall (also 4 times).

• Crawford has only faced the Flyers once in his career – a 4-1 home loss back in Jan. 2011, but he has never played at Wells Fargo Center.

• Antti Raanta (now in AHL) posted a 32-save shutout in the first matchup this season on Oct. 21 (4-0 win).

• Newcomers struggling: In their 9 games with CHI, trade acquisitions Kimmo Timonen (0 pts) and Antoine Vermette (2 pts) have yet to make an impact offensively.

• The 40-year-old Timonen had spent the past 7+ seasons in Philadelphia before the Flyers traded him on Feb. 27 for a 2015 2nd-round pick and a 2016 conditional 4th-round pick.

PHILLY TEAM/PLAYER NOTES

• Jakub Voracek is coming off a 3-assist performance vs. EDM on Saturday. He now ranks 2nd in the NHL with his 52 assists and t-3rd in points with 73.

• One point behind Sidney Crosby and John Tavares in the scoring race, Voracek could become the first Flyer to lead the NHL in scoring by himself in the 46+ seasons of the franchise (in lockout-shortened 1994-95 season, Eric Lindros shared for the NHL lead in pts w/ Jaromir Jagr, but he did not share the Art Ross Trophy title, as Lindros lost the goals scored tiebreaker to Jagr).

• Crosby led the league in assists & points last season.

• Claude Giroux scored twice vs. EDM. Now with 21 goals on the season, Giroux has scored at least 20 goals for the second straight season, and 4th time overall in his 8 NHL seasons.

• Giroux has finished 3rd in the scoring race 2 of the last 3 seasons (2014, 2012). He is t-9th in the league this season (67 points).

• Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Giroux has the most points in the NHL (294 in 280 GP).

The Florida Panthers have been treading water lately, but that’s not nearly good enough given their situation. After suffering a 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay tonight, Florida will need a lot of help in order to advance to the playoffs.

Florida was behind 2-0 going into the second period, but the Panthers rallied back with goals from Jussi Jokinen, Brandon Pirri, and Jonathan Huberdeau all within the span of two minutes.

As impressive as that stretch was though, it wasn’t enough. The Panthers outshot the Lightning 14-8 in the third frame, but Tampa Bay was the only team to find the back of the net in that period. Ryan Callahan scored the game-winner with 2:28 remaining to prevent Florida from getting even a mercy point.

The Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators were both idle tonight, so the Florida Panthers remain four and five points back respectively. However, they have now played in one more game than Ottawa. That combined with the Panthers big deficit when it comes to the tiebreaker ROW makes it hard to envision a Panthers’ comeback. That being said, Florida will have an opportunity to spark a hot streak against the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

The Florida Panthers have won back-to-back contests, but with the Ottawa Senators threatening to run away with the last Wild Card spot on the strength of their red hot play, the Panthers had a lot of pressure on them coming into tonight’s game against Tampa Bay.

The first period didn’t go their way though. Lightning forward Brenden Morrow took advantage of a rebound opportunity to make it 1-0 just 5:49 minutes into the contest. A little less than two minutes later, Ryan Callahan stole a pass intended for Florida’s Aleksander Barkov and then fed the puck to Tyler Johnson who fired a powerful one-timer past goaltender Roberto Luongo.

You can see that sequence below:

With nine games left in its schedule, Tampa Bay is two points behind the Montreal Canadiens in the battle for the Atlantic Division title. The Lightning also have a shot of taking the Presidents’ Trophy.